A garden trimmer of the so-called weed-whacker type has a housing provided with a motor whose output is rotatable about a motor axis. A cutter line normally formed of a synthetic-resin monofilament extends radially from this output when same rotates and can be used to cut vegetation, as for instance when trimming around the edge of a lawn. Normally a shaft extends at an acute angle to the motor axis up from the housing and has an outer end formed with a pistol-grip handle having a trigger that must be depressed to electrically energize the motor. This dead-man type of switch ensures that the motor can only be energized to spin the cutter line when the trigger is depressed, so that if anything goes wrong and this trigger is released the arrangement will stop.
Such systems work normally quite well so long as the motor axis is upright, that is so long as the plane of the orbit of the cutter line is parallel to the ground. When, however, the system is to be used to trim vertically, with the cutter-line plane upright, the user must normally adopt an extremely inconvenient grip on the tool. This is because when the motor axis is horizontal the grip part of the handle is pointing normally straight up from the assembly, so that the user cannot actuate the trigger with his or her pointing or index finger without twisting his or her hand around upside down. As these devices are normally designed for right-handed users, this inconvenience is frequently even greater for the left-handed.